Picture Show
by gleeme33
Summary: All of them are really people from the past, caught somehow in the present. Now, they have to find out who they really are, and get each other back home before the course of history is changed forever. But how, when they have no idea about their pasts?
1. Author's Note, Full Summary and Prolog

_Author's Note_

Hey guys! I just finished my historical-based story, _The Trail's End_, and I'm really proud of it, so if you haven't read it maybe you'd like it. It's a Finchel AU based on Bonnie and Clyde. Anyway, I really enjoyed the historical tie-ins during that story, and in my other story _Once Upon A Time_ – based on the TV show – there's a whole 'other-life' twist. That's where this story comes from. An AU where the New Directions are all well-known people from the past, stuck in a sort of 'time-warp'. Therefore, the title is a reference to _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_, but it also has a whole other reason that you'll understand once you read this! I have high hopes for this story, and I hope you all like it! Thanks and enjoy.

_Full Summary_

The New Directions aren't so 'new' after all. It wasn't just a coincidence that these students all ended up in a club together, no – little do they know that all of them are really people from the past, caught somehow in the present. Little do they know how they'll save each other; bring each other back home. But once they go back, they're back for good, and if they don't get back to their time periods at all…they could alter the course of history forever. How will the New Directions get everyone back in time? Will they even realize who they are in the first place? And how will friends and couples deal with never seeing each other again – let alone remembering their time in Lima, Ohio? They say a picture is worth a thousand words…

_Cast Of Characters_

_The Boys – _

Will Schuster – Jonathon Larson: A New York-loving composer/playwright. Most famous for his Broadway show, the still-loved _RENT _(1996). His other most notable work, _tick, tick…BOOM! _(2001), was pursued after he died. Born: 1960. Died: 1996 (Age 35)

Finn Hudson – James Dean: An all-American actor. Most famous for the movies _East Of Eden_, _Rebel Without A Cause_, and _Giant_. Born: 1931. Died: 1955. (Age 24)

Noah "Puck" Puckerman – Giacomo Casanova: Italian adventurer and author, but most famous for being a ladies man. Born: 1725. Died: 1798. (Age 73)

Kurt Hummel – Oscar Wilde: Irish writer, playwright, and poet. Most famous for his works of satire during the Victorian Era, especially his play called _The Importance Of Being Earnest_. He was gay, which in the Victorian Era was a terrible crime, and was sent to jail because of it. Once he got out, he was as flamboyant as possible because he knew they could not send him to jail again due to double jeopardy. Born: 1854. Died: 1900. (Age 46)

Artie Abrams – Christopher Reeve: an American actor/film director, most famous for his role of Clark Kent/Superman in the original _Superman: The Movie_. He was noted for being in a wheelchair after becoming a quadriplegic, but even more noted for never letting it get the best of him. Born: 1952. Died: 2004. (Age 52)

Mike Change – Michael Jackson: an extremely well-known dancer, singer, and all-around pop icon. His famous nickname was "The King Of Pop". Some of his more famous songs are _Thriller_, _Beat It_, _Black Or White_, and _We Are The World_. Born: 1958. Died: 2009. (Age 50)

Blaine Anderson – Charlie Chaplin: An English singer, composer, and comedic film actor, best known for his silent films. Born: 1889. Died: 1977. (Age 88)

Sam Evans – Patrick Swayze: An American actor, dancer, and singer-songwriter. He is best known for his roles in the movie _Ghost_, _Dirty Dancing_, and _Point Break_. Born: 1952. Died: 2009. (Age 57)

Rory Flanagan – George Harrison: An Irish musician, best known for being in the band _The Beatles_. Born: 1943. Died: 2001. (Age 58)

_The Girls –_

Emma Pillsbury – Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American activist for women's rights. Born: 1815. Died: 1902 (Age 86)

Sue Sylvester – Margaret Thatcher: A very powerful and venerated British politician. Nicknamed "The Iron Lady". Born: 1925. Died: 2003. (Age 86)

Rachel Berry – Fanny Brice: New Yorker, comedian, singer, dancer, film actress, Broadway and stage actress, and radio actress. Her nickname, "Funny Girl", became the title of a Broadway show created about her, in which Barbra Streisand famously portrayed her. Born: 1891. Died: 1951 (Age 59)

Quinn Fabray – Louisa May Alcott: A highly loved American novelist, best known for her novel _Little Women_, and it's sequel, _Jo's Boys_. Born: 1832. Died: 1888 (Age 55)

Santana Lopez – Selena Quintanilla-Pérez: A Mexican-American singer, known as the "Mexican Madonna". She is known for her very pure voice, and her assassination one week before her twenty-fourth birthday. Born: 1971 Died: 1995 (Age 23)

Mercedes Jones – Ella Fitzgerald: Known as "The First Lady Of Song", she was a powerfully talented jazz and soul singer. Born: 1923. Died: 1996 (Age 73)

Tina Cohen-Chang – Kayo Hatta: An Asian-American filmmaker, writer, and female activist. She directed and co-wrote the film _Picture Bride_, which a Sundance Film Festival Award. Born: 1958. Died: 2005 (Age 47)

Brittany S. Peirce – Anna Pavlova: A Russian ballet dancer, known as one of the finest and most beautiful dancers in history; the first one to dance _Swan Lake_. Born: 1881. Died: 1931 (Age 49)

Sugar Motta – Elizabeth "Liz" Taylor: A British-American actress; noted for her beauty and sex appeal. She was one of the great actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. Born: 1932. Died: 2011. (Age 79)

_Couples_

Finchel, Klaine, Brittana, Quick, Wemma, Samcedes, and more may come in later.

_Friendships_

Kurt/Rachel, Finn/Quinn, Puck/Finn, Quinn/Rachel, Mike/Sugar, Santana/Mercedes, Santana/Rachel, Kurt/Rory, Rory/Sam, Emma/Sue (maybe), Blaine/Santana, Quinn/Kurt, and more may come in later.

_Prolog_

The roar of the crowd made her heart beat out of her chest. She loved any kind of acting, but there was just something about a live audience that she thought feeds her very soul. They were actually _roaring _for_ her_. Well, she thought it just goes to show ya' – a few years ago she was telling herself '_do you think beautiful girls are gonna be a star forever? I should think not! Any second now there're gonna be out – finished! And then it'll be my turn…_'. And now, it was. So maybe she didn't have the prettiest face of the bunch. So maybe her nose was a little large and stuck out a bit. The crowd didn't seem care – they were _roaring_, weren't they? – and she's never felt more like a princess in her sparkly, silver dress with her tweeted feather tam-hat placed just so perfectly to the side of her head, and…

"Are you in here?"

She whipped around and saw him, peeping his head into her dressing room.

"Nick! Oh, Nicky!"

He smiled that half-smile she loves and embraced her.

"You're going to be so great out there," he whispered in her ear. She knew Nick was a gambler, and therefore wrong for her every way, but she realized that he could not have been more right. _Oh, my man I love him so…when he takes me in his arms – the world is bright; all right_…

"Oh, Nicky…th-they told me…they told me 'if a girl isn't pretty, she'll never make it'…"

"Hey, who you talkin', doll? You're_ beautiful_."

And that's all she ever wanted to hear. God, they were _roaring_…

"Fanny?"

_Beep! – Beep! – Beep! _

Rachel Berry sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes, her screeching alarm clock reading _6:00 a.m. _She shuffled out of bed and flicked off the alarm, but never fully awoke until about a half-hour later, still in the grips of her sparking dream. It was funny – her dreams were so clear when she was asleep, almost like she really _was _there, but when she woke up, it was like she was trying to remember something from years ago – only little blurbs and snippets came to light, but nothing that actually told her anything. _Huh… _Rachel thought, as she swung open her car door that morning. _Funny…_


	2. A Second Thought

**I am so excited to start this story! I really hope you all like it and tell me what you think. Review, please – I'd like to know what you really think. Thanks and enjoy.**

****"_...To being an us, for once, instead of a them! La Vie Bohme!_..." - Part of the song "La Vie Bohme" from _RENT _by Jonathan Larson 

_Chapter One_

"You were _flirting _with a woman in rubber!"

"There will _always _be a woman in rubber flirting with me! Give me a break!"

The air seemed clearer here, Will thought. How simply perfect it was, once mastered – he didn't have to give up anything. When he was awake, he lived his present life – when he was asleep, he lived the life he was meant to live. Yes, he decided, the air seemed clearer here. Everything fit together, here, like puzzle pieces forming a masterpiece. Music filled his brain. And everything had a deeper meaning. Everything was a metaphor. Dialogue, script – _words_ in general – made messages, here; songs, rhymes…

"Jon?"

Will looked up to find both women looking at him from on stage. The one on the right brushed some of her long, dark hair out of her face and asked:

"Jonathon? Is this okay?"

"What? Oh, right…Idina…yeah, you're great. Both of you are."

"Are you alright?" The woman on the left asked Will. "You're looking a little pale…"

"Yeah, Fredi, don't worry. I'm fine…I…just…"

_Shit_, he cursed in his mind. _Not yet, not now…_

"Jonathon?"

Will Schuster opened his eyes. He was startled, for a second not knowing where he was, and then realized exactly where he was. In the choir room at McKinley High School, that's where. Quickly, he checked the ink written on his palm. _Top drawer_, it said. _First cabinet. _Will sprinted down the hall to his new history room, room 107, and flung open the top drawer of the first cabinet. In the drawer were countless pictures – some of actors, actresses, and crew members, and some that were stage shots, some that were cut outs of posters, all of which proclaimed _RENT_. Will took a deep breath. Thank God for pictures…

"Will?"

He turned around.

"Oh, God…Idin – _Shelby_! You – you scared me…"

"I can see that."

Shelby's shoes clicked on the floor and Will tensed as she walked closer towards him, as if he'd been caught red-handed.

"Will…"

"Don't, Shelby!" He yelled, slamming the drawer shut. Shelby put her hands up.

"Fine!" She yelled. "_Fine_! Keep living like this, Will. Don't get help. Don't! Go on, living a life in the past! But the truth is – you can't tell me from Idina Menzel. Don't know what's going on in one life because you're too caught up playing in the other!" She shook her head. "I just…I don't want anything to happen to you – "

"Is that why you came here, Shelby?" He asked, not looking her in the eye. "You know about Rachel, don't you? You wanted to make sure nothing happened to her." Shelby sighed:

"They told me when she was born…"

"And you haven't told anyone since. Including her."

"It's not my place."

"Oh, _no_!" Will drawled sarcastically. "But it's your job to make sure she's okay without doing anything to actually _help _her!"

"I told you – it's not my place! And this isn't about Rachel, Will, this is about you! You can't go on like this – you know the consequences if you – "

"Hey Mr. Schue!" One of the kids in his next history class called, as the students shuffled to their desks. Rachel, who just so happened to be in the next class, looked awkwardly from her mother to her glee teacher.

"Um…" She squeaked.

"Don't worry about, Rachel, I'll see you later." And Shelby glided out of room 107.

"Okay, class," Will said with a sigh once all of his students had sat down. "Open about to page seventy-five…"

Kurt really tried not to fall asleep in Mr. Schue's history class, but it was just _so_ boring – and for some reason he was much too exhausted today, as if he hadn't had his morning coffee or something. With his elbow bent against his should-have-been-opened textbook, Kurt involuntarily closed his blue eyes.

"Would you give that ratty old quill a rest already?" The boy leaning over where he sat laughed hardily. Edward Queensberry was the son of a scarily powerful family – and both of them knew what they were doing was illegal, but both of them refused to deem it 'wrong'.

"Oh, now, Eddie – what's it to you? I'm in the middle of – "

But Edward Queensberry kissed him, hard, before he could finish. One word flashed through his mind – an offensive, gruesome one for what they were. _Somdomite_. It was an ugly word one doesn't use in casual conversation – but it's what he'd go to jail for, if they were caught…

But right now, he didn't care.

The kisses got deeper, sweeter – and the soon-to-be play on his desk became the last thing on his mind – but in another minute, he began to feel dizzy, nauseous…everything went blurry and dark…

"Oscar?"

Kurt Hummel woke up to the sound of the final bell.

"Kurt?" Rachel asked, shaking him a little. "C'mon, let's go to glee practice. Are you alright?"

"What? Yeah, I just…crazy dream."

"I know what you mean…" She shook her head. "Now let's go, it's time for glee practice!"

And neither of them gave their dreams a second though.

**Review?**


	3. Black Nothingness

**It's been a long, long while, I know – I actually didn't want to continue this story. But, well, here's another chapter. Please review. Thanks and enjoy.**

_Chapter Two_

"Oh, Laddie," she bayed. "You can't…you can't do this – please!"

Ladislas Wisniewski was a fine looking man of twenty-four years, while the girl before him was only eighteen. They were friends – close friends and neighbors – but this…this was something different.

"I…I took an advance on some of my inheritance," was his response. "And I bought you this ring."

"A _ring_? What are taking about?"

"I want to _marry _you!"

"_Marry _me? Stop this, Laddie – this isn't funny!" She stepped back, away from him. "Have you gone _mad_?"

"I _love _you," he told her. "Marry me. I want to take you as my wife."

"No. Oh – _no_. Laddie…_no_! Find someone else! Fine some…some accomplished girl! I told you – I've told you one hundred times…" she was beginning to feel rather dizzy now. "I've told you, Laddie – I'll never marry!"

"You don't mean that!" He was almost screaming now; her head was throbbing.

"I _do _mean it!" She turned away from him sharply, headed across the room and sat down on the nearby sofa, cradling her head in her hands as she silently sobbed.

"You'll marry," he said in an irritated sort of cackle. "Just not _me_ – that's what you're really saying."

"Go away, Laddie, you understand_ nothing_." And when he did not move, she added: "Please, just go!"

"Louisa?"

"_Go_!"

She smoothed her long dress and laid herself down on the sofa, throwing every property that her great-aunt taught her of 'womanly grace' out the window. Her head throbbed, her eyes watered…everything seemed to ache. There was a moment, a small, short-lived one before everything went black, when she decided not to give into the black nothingness that called her forth. A moment where she decided something that would change countless lives to come...

The pretty blonde made herself sit up, and smoothed her cut-short, golden hair out of her face for a moment, taking in what had just happened. Everything that anyone had ever wanted for her in life – a good husband who would support and love her, and a chance of a quiet, demure life – had just been shattered to pieces. For some reason, she didn't grieve for it. She felt almost…liberated. _Free_. Freer, that is, than she had ever been before. How could Laddie do this? How could he do this to what they had? Everything would come apart now. _How can I live my dreams or even start – when everything has come apart? Now nothing is the way it was before – and I don't know how to proceed… _She took a deep breath and stood up, the throbbing her in head becoming less apparent, and closed her hazel eyes for a moment. _I only know I'm meant for something more_, she told herself. _I've got to know if I can be_…

"L-Louisa?" Her sister's soft, sick voice rang from the upstairs room. Hearing her younger sister's call, she raced up the stairs and fell at her bedside. Elizabeth – or as she was nicknamed, Beth – was dying, and there was nothing that anyone – even the sister that adored her more than anything in the world – could do to save her now. Beth's face was pale and her entire being was emaciated and gaunt. Her pretty, once light-filled eyes were now glazed and heavy, as only the action of staying alive had taken an immense toll on her. She tried to speak, but her sister hushed her:

"Hush, now, Beth – do not waste your energy with speech."

"Louisa," she continued, despite what her sister told her. "I…I know you will do great things…"

"Beth…"

"You will do great things," she continued. "I want you to tell me so. Please."

"I…will do great things," the girl echoed.

"Thank you," Beth continued. "Now please…do not be saddened, when I leave you. Sister, do not weep. I never made any plans to marry, like Anna, or to do great things, like you. I was always just silly, little Beth, and I suppose that's how I shall remain. I am honored to have been your sister, Louisa. One day soon, when I am far from you, I shall not really _be _so far as you think – because you'll always keep me, sister, in your heart or mind. All my life, I lived for loving you. Let me go now."

She sat at her small desk in the attic of her parent's large, Massachusetts home that night, and penned in her over-used journal:

"_My dear Beth died at three in the morning after two years of patient pain. Last week she put her work away, saying the needle was too heavy…Saturday she slept, and at midnight became unconscious, quietly breathing her life away till three; then, with one last look of her beautiful eyes, she was gone._"

One day, she'd write a book about this.

Quinn Fabray had been driving home from a glee club practice that afternoon, and gotten in a car crash. Now, her she was, lying in a hospital bed. Now, her she was, in a coma. Now, her she was, trapped in her other life.

"She'll come out of this, won't she?" Puck was screaming at one of the doctors. "Please – she'll be alright, won't she?"

"We can't be sure of that right now, son," the doctor told him. "With all the damage to her legs, we cannot be sure if she will ever walk again."

"But…_no_! She'll wake up and be fine, right? _She'll be fine_, right?"

"I'm sorry," he said gravely. "But at this point, we just don't know."

"Q-Quinn…" Puck's voice shook, still standing by her bedside so many hours later. He moved his hand over hers, and murmured: "Please, Quinn, please wake up…Quinn…please, wake up…"

The blonde girl found her throbbing headache return when the family had returned from Beth's services, and retired to her bedroom early that night. When she closed her eyes, she saw a place, different from any place she'd ever seen. There were people she didn't know; technology she didn't think could exist in her lifetime. And there was a boy, standing over her, that made her suddenly smile.

"Laddie…" she murmured, and pushed him a little, seeing he had fallen asleep at her bedside. He did not budge, however, as if she had gone right through him. Finally, feeling her looking at him, the boy awoke and saw her.

"Quinn…" he started, and then all she saw was black nothingness.


End file.
